The Spurs’ losing streak in historical terms

It’s been well documented across cyberspace over the last 12 hours or so about how rare the Spurs’ five-game losing streak really is.

Spurs Nation.com has the complete chart of the longest losing streaks of the Gregg Popovich era. The current tailspin is one of the seven longest losing streak of Popovich’s coaching tenure and the longest since a six-game losing streak in the final games before Tim Duncan was drafted in 1997.

But it goes even deeper than that, according to some numbers that were developed by the Elias Sports Bureau.

San Antonio had been the only team in the league without at least one five-game losing streak over those 14 seasons. In fact, every other NBA team has had no fewer than six separate five-game losing streaks over that span.

The Spurs’ just-concluded span of 1,112 games without losing five in a row was the second-longest such streak in NBA history. The record is held by the Boston Celtics, who went 1,412 games without losing five straight games from 1950 to 1969.

These numbers underscore how consistent the Spurs have been in Duncan’s era. And they also show how rare the current five-game losing streak really is for Duncan’s team.